You’re probably staring at it right now: your laptop, your iPad, your smart phone…  our constant connection to the web via electronic gadgetry is the number one usurper of our time alone with God today.

Now, I fully realize the risk I am taking here: I am using a web-based medium for idea-sharing… to suggest that we must break our addiction to the web!  But this is intentionally ironic.  Stay with me here:

The web is a neutral resource; it is neither good nor bad on its own.  Actually, it is quite useful, helpful – even Kingdom-building in many ways!  Like money or influence or fire – it is a tool that when harnessed, its power can be leveraged to accomplish great good both for the individual and for the world!  But when it is not stewarded properly – when it is allowed to run out of control – just like money or influence or fire – it destroys us and the things that are most important to us.

I would say that my relationship with God – that constant connection with Him – the intimacy I get to share with my Heavenly Father – is the most important thing in my life.  If you are reading this blog, I bet that you would probably say the same.  So, for me, it’s worth identifying and examining the things in my life that I allow to steal my time away from God.

Okay, full disclosure time:

  • I check email at least 5 times per day.
  • I usually check facebook 3-4 times per day.
  • Twitter about once per day.
  • I carry a pager for work and a cell phone.
  • There is also a wired phone on my desk at work and another in my room at home.

I am surrounded by – and constantly connected to – the web.  Imagine a spider’s web… it’s an interesting play on words: I am perpetually stuck like a fly in the entanglements of “the web” of constant cellular and satellite connectivity.  I bet you are the same.  What I have described here is normal, 21st-century life.

But, examine that list of connections.  Just look at the number of tethers, pulling at me, constantly – and all of them by my own invitation!  When am I ever free to hear from God?  When is my switch-board of devices ever switched off?  When am I ever free from “the web” long enough to walk – unencumbered – “in the cool of the evening” with the Lord?

Now hear me: I am NOT suggesting a wholesale ban on technology.  What I AM suggesting is a little healthy moderation and a proactive – even a scheduled – routine of disconnecting from the web so that you can reconnect with God.

In my next post, I will set forth a list of very moderate, doable steps to disentangle ourselves from the web in small, manageable ways on a daily and weekly basis – so that we can be free to focus our thoughts and hearts on nurturing our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Are you ever disconnected from the web of constant connectivity?  Is there ever a time where you cannot be found, disturbed, or interrupted?  When do those times come?  Are they surprises / accidents?  Or are they planned / intentional?